ANC's lack of compassion: apartheid lives on

Lenasia demolitions 'about corruption': The demolition of houses on land intended for government housing in Lenasia was part of the fight against corruption, Gauteng Housing MEC Ntombi Mekgwe says.

The so-called Killer mom should not be jailed

A woman from one of the poorest provinces of South Africa was condemned to 12 years in prison for murdering her 5 children. Venolia  Siwa said she stabbed four of the children – disabled 13-year-old Sizwe (Sizwe means a Nation), 10-year-old Lukanyo (his name means Light), Edward who was 5 and 4-year-old Naledi (Naledi means Star) with a knife. She said she drowned the youngest, Reatlegile (2). Reatlegile is a Tswana name which means We are Victors.

Such beautiful names. It almost makes you believe that these children were planned and conceived with love. It will just take their names for the gates of heaven to open for them. Just unbelievable that they perished at the hands of the woman who gave birth to them. She is now pregnant as she goes to jail. Does she not have control or a say over her reproductive health? What kind of demon possessed her to accomplish the mission to kill her own offspring?

My friend Margaret Mothibi, a journalist for the SABC in the Northern Cape, covered her story. Venolia is a member of the ZCC church. Margaret says community members described her as sweet, quite lady. Some even said she was a great mother. Like millions of South Africans she was unemployed. With five children and a sixth on the way? On top of that, she had problems with her partner. No support. 

Northern Cape province has a reputation of women (and men) who abuse alcohol even in their pregnancy. Venolia wasn't a drinker. She was just a woman from Magojaneng, who may have been suffering from Post Natal Depression. Dis-empowered like many South Africans; probably no education, no access to decent health care and most certainly submissive to her partner. I'm not in any way making excuses for her. But the conditions we live in put us in the situations we find ourselves in. Human soul can only take so much suffering. The climax of her suffering and frustrations ended with her children dead! Dead! The impatience and frustrations of the Marikana miners ended with more than 34 people dead. The inhuman living conditions of South African farm workers has led them to burn vineyards that generate millions for the country's economic. But nothing for them.

"Motherhood without assistance is hell" someone told me once. Margaret tells me that some women in court who didn't even know Venolia, wept with her or even for her. I too weep for her. I feel sorry for this woman. What kind of life will she lead? When she sobers up from the demon that drove her to kill. She will die. Her spirit will die and  follow her children.

This country gives me heartburn sometimes

It's travesty and a tragedy when a rhino or a white person suffers, but when it's black person suffering it's just another day at the office. This week it wasn't the Khayelitsha shack that were on fire. It was the luxurious holiday homes in St. Francis in the Eastern Cape. Thankfully no fatalities. 

But I'd like to add that I feel nothing for the owners of the homes that were razed to the ground by the fires. In my view, there was just too much air time given to this story. All they lost are pictures and insured appliances. 

There were hotels around St. Francis offering the so called victims of fire accommodation.

In a shack fire in Diepsloot or Khayelitsha it is the churches and schools that will offer soup and shelter. In these fires most of the black population, will have lost Identity Documents they use to get access to the social grants. All  their livelihoods are contained in shack. And those stories dwindle so fast in the media. Simply because the shack fires happen too often. Sometimes shack fires are just not headline stories at all if there is no one dead. 

Do you want me to talk about the plight of the farm workers? Should I remind you of the more than 34 lives it took before mine workers could earn a reasonable wage? Constant reminder that life black life is cheap. The gap between whites and black is just wide and getting wider. 

In 2012 we have a government that demolishes homes because they are built on illegal lad!? Really? Does it not take you back to forced removals of the apartheid government? The Gauteng Department of Housing defended the demolitions and said they were in line with the law. So we have a government that would rather be on the right side of the law that to make the welfare and interests of its citizens a priority. I am quite certain Nomvula Mokonyane could have found a way to bargain with the people pf Lenasia. The Gauteng Premier suffered at the hands of the apartheid government, but she ignores the cries and screams of the women and children of Lenasia.  

There's a disco light at the end of the tunnel

Hardness yields to softness…

Eventually, every time.

I try to remember this when I hit a place within myself that is rigid, tensed against life.

Trying to blast through does not work & can cause damage & pain.

Allowing myself to continually yield to the pull of that which moves my soul softens those places in myself & lets the life force flow more freely. 

My job has become like a cheating husband.

The one you chose, the one you love and have invested so much in.

But, because I love him (my job), I continue to be lifted and carried to an impossible place by my "grandmothers".

I think I am taken there so that I may see how that which appears static and set - might be freed by the magic of my imagination. 

Malawi police ordered to stop arresting homos

Malawi has dropped its humans rights abuse of persecuting homosexuals "for the time being". Apparently Malawi police have been ordered to stop arresting people in same sex relationships. Authorities say the suspension has been made to allow lawmakers time to hold further debates on the issue.

A recent report sent to the President Joyce Banda suggested that decriminalizing homosexuality could help the country's fight against HIV/AIDS. And that makes sense because men who have sex with men (not necessarily gay) are the ones at risk of contracting HIV. They eventually die of Aids because they pushed into wilderness by the persecution and the stigma around being and HIV positive. 

Like many African states, homosexuality is illegal in Malawi and is punishable with 14 years in prison if convicted. You will remember Malawi came under the world spotlight in 2009, when a gay couple was arrested after staging a public traditional engagement. The first of its kind. 

However they were released after western donors threatened to withdraw aid to the country.

Aluta Continua!! 

Showing true colours!

Why do we have the army deployed in Marikana where the police themselves shot and killed striking miners? But requests to get the army in the Cape flats, where innocent children die almost everyday will not be heeded! Is it because the miners are now crippling an industry where some of the government officials benefit? Have the miners - fighting for a better life - forced the government to show its true colours? 

The official opposition party recently pleaded with the national government to deploy troops in an area where drugs and violent crimes are perpetrated against innocent people. A BIG NO from government, saying the police were capable of keeping that part of the world in control. I tell you now that there is a toddler shot in the head by a stray bullet in Lavender Hill. And this is a tip of the iceberg. They refused to call it a state of emergency because it would only affirm the notion that today's government is very much similar to the apartheid government that oppressed the majority of the black people of this country. 

South Africa has an alarming leadership crisis. People only "fix things" just to ensure their comfortable life at the expense of many - many South African who are in abject poverty. We have the likes of Julius Malema who are using the unfortunate situation to score political points. Stirring up a mess that has resulted in more people dead since the massacre of 34 miners. We have the former trade unionists and freedom fighters who are now tycoons in the mining sector. Even in their positions they have done nothing to improve the lives of the miners. Despite their first-hand experience of the plight of our people. Now the discontent among the poor has spiralled out of control. From service delivery protest for basic services such as sanitation and access to water to the fight for better wages. 

Government has shown us its true colours, and we believe them. 

US APPROVES NEW ONCE-A-DAY PILL TO TREAT HIV

A new pill to treat HIV infection -- combining two previously approved drugs plus two new ones -- has been approved for adults living with the virus that causes AIDS, US regulators said Monday.


The single daily dose of Stribild provides a complete treatment regimen for HIV infection, the US Food and Drug Administration said in a statement, and is meant for people who have not already received treatment with other HIV drugs.


"Through continued research and drug development, treatment for those infected with HIV has evolved from multi-pill regimens to single-pill regimens," said Edward Cox, director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.


"New combination HIV drugs like Stribild help simplify treatment regimens."


The new pill, previously called Quad, is made by Gilead Sciences in California and "should be available to patients by the end of the week," company spokeswoman Erin Rau told AFP.


The company said it tested the pill in two double-blind clinical trials of more than 1,400 patients.


Results showed that Stribild performed as well or better than two other treatment combinations, and brought virus readings down to undetectable levels in around nine of 10 patients after 48 weeks.


"Therapies that address the individual needs of patients are critical to enhancing adherence and increasing the potential for treatment success," Gilead chief John Martin said in a company statement.


But some advocates say the new pill is priced far too high.


"We wanted to see (a price of) no more than the current drug," said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, referring to Gilead's previously approved three-in-one pill, Atripla. But he said the price will be about a third higher than the three-pill combo.


The new drug "is not a significant improvement over existing therapies," Weinstein told AFP, adding the cost will "severely limit access" to the new medication.


Gilead is charging wholesalers $28,500 a year for the drug, but said it will provide discounts to state assistance programs and has created a patient financial-assistance program, Rau said.


This is Gilead's third single-tablet anti-HIV combination therapy, the company noted, adding it is still seeking approval for the newest offering in Australia, Canada and the European Union.


To get the drug to HIV patients in the developing world, where millions lack access to effective treatment options, generic versions are being developed -- with permission and help from Gilead -- by a number of Indian manufacturers and the Medicines Patent Pool, a non-profit that helps facilitate generic drug-making.


The drug combines Truvada -- another Gilead offering approved in 2004, that combines emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate to fight an enzyme that HIV needs to replicate -- with elvitegravir, another enzyme-fighting drug, and cobicistat, which enhances the effects of elvitegravir.


The FDA said further study is required to determine the quad-drug's safety for women and children, how resistance may develop, and whether the drug interacts with other drugs.


Stribild will also be required to carry a label warning patients and health care providers the drug can cause fatal side effects, including severe liver problems, and a build-up of lactic acid in the blood. The FDA said the label is also required for many other HIV-fighting drugs.


But Gilead said that during the studies, "most adverse effects were mild to moderate." The FDA said patients commonly experienced nausea and diarrhea.


The drug also weakened bones and caused or worsened kidney problems --both of which will be mentioned in a warning on the drug's label.


Truvada was previously approved as a treatment for people infected with HIV to be used in combination with other antiretroviral drugs.


In July, it was also approved for use by healthy at-risk adults to prevent HIV, the first-ever daily pill approved for that purpose.


This year, the FDA also approved the first rapid HIV test that can be bought without a prescription and taken at home.